This Fact About MLB Salaries May Surprise You: TRAINA THOUGHTS

1. The return of Major League Baseball is still a big question mark, but more because of money than the coronavirus.

Naturally, this has made fans angry with the players because most people look at baseball players as people who get paid millions and millions of dollars to play a game. We saw this in a major way with Blake Snell and his famous Twitch comments about having to get his.

For some reason, though, the owners, who are the ones responsible for agreeing to pay the players the astronomical salaries, get a pass, which has never made sense to me. The players can't make their massive salaries without someone signing off on them.

But here's the thing about those "astronomical" salaries: There are way less of them than I had thought. 

Sure, you have plenty of wild salaries. Angels outfielder Mike Trout was scheduled to make $38 million in 2020 and Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole and Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer were slated to make $36 million this season.

Those are the figures most fans focus on because they are hard to comprehend.

However, I was shocked to read Tuesday that about 65% of MLB players make $1 million or less. Maybe I'm just dumb and naive, but I would've guessed that figure would be around 20-25%.

Now, before you get ready to send me an angry tweet about those 65% of players still making a great living, I'm well aware. 

The lowest paid player makes more than $500,000, so nobody should cry a river for anyone playing Major League Baseball. 

But I've always been under the assumption that most players make millions and millions and millions.

Of course, fans don't want to think about the fact that these athletes have a special skill set that is finite. And fans don't want to think about the fact that the typical family has been priced out of games because of the cost of parking, tickets, beer, soda and hot dogs is offensive.

But when you think about the owners-vs.-players battle that's going on right now about 2020 salaries, you might want to think twice about automatically blasting the players and siding with owners.

Especially when the owner who is worth the least amount of money is Bob Castellini of the Reds at $400 million.

2. After averaging 5.6 million viewers for the 10 episodes of The Last Dance, ESPN is finding that people don't really care that much about Lance Armstrong.

3. Given this solid recap of The Match, Tom Brady definitely has a future as a sports blogger when he's done playing in the NFL in about 10 years.

4. "Don't hold your breath. I had a flip phone up until a couple of years ago." That's what Peyton Manning said to Rich Eisen when asked if he'd follow in his brother's footsteps and join Twitter.

Don't ever do it, Peyton. Just don't.

5. I want to piggyback off of something from Twitter last night. The @MLBVault account asked people to name the batting stance they imitated the most as a kid. My answer was Rickey Henderson and that led to me tweeting the iconic Rickey bat flip GIF.

Just look at that GIF. It's freakin beautiful. The bat disappears in mid air, Rickey is practically in the dugout while trying to jog to first base and he's staring down everything.

So here's what I'd like from you guys. Send me your all-time favorite sports GIF. Just one, please. Send it to me on Twitter or email it to me (Jimmy.Traina@si.com) and I'll post them all in Traina Thoughts one day soon.

6. The latest SI Media Podcast features an interview with Andrew Perloff from The Dan Patrick Show. The Danette talks about testing positive for coronavirus antibodies, the technological issues of doing a radio show from home, his love of crazy hot takes, The Last Dance, sports documentaries we'd like to see, Breakfast Club vs. Sixteen Candles and much more.

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Play.

7. RANDOM YOUTUBE VIDEO OF THE DAY: Jerry Seinfeld was on the Howard Stern Show last week and perfectly broke down friendships.

8. SPORTS HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Six years ago today, 50 Cent threw out one of the worst first pitches ever.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Stitcher. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram.